Free fertilizer from the sea

Cooking in Cape Town today! 35 degrees (Celsius) in the shade and who knows what in the sun! Fortunately, here in Kommetjie there is a gentle drift off the sea and it's really rather pleasant if you don't have to exert yourself in any way.  The sea is like a pond and is ideal for paddle skiing - I really must do something about that.

Occasionally the air brings with it the smell of rotting seaweed, which makes you sniff around suspiciously and look under your shoes to see if you've stepped in doggy doo. It's quite unusual to get that smell in this part of Kommetjie, as it usually is associated with the area abutting on the Kom and the boat launching beach, where copious amounts of kelp accumulate after rough seas and can do nothing but rot unless the municipality sends its truck around to remove it. It makes the most excellent fertiliser for the garden, and there should in fact be streams of people dragging 40-foot lengths of kelp over both shoulders to go and chop up with a spade or panga. But the truth of the matter is that it is incredibly heavy and it needs a wheelbarrow to get it home in. It should be chopped while still fresh and moist. I think the legal amount of "seashore" - rocks, sand, shells, etc. - which you are allowed to take home is 10kg per day - they know you will soon get tired of this and there is little danger of decimating the beach and creating another Big Hole like in Kimberley (of course, if it were diamonds and not kelp it would be a different story).

I am a firm believer in the legend of kelp and the lemon tree. If your lemon tree does not bear fruit, wind a piece of kelp around the base of the trunk and you will be inundated thereafter. You will have lemon juice, lemon pudding, lemonade and lemon curd for many years to come. I tried it and it works!

But I remember how heavy the kelp was and it will be a wheelbarrow for me next time.